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Wednesday, September 29, 2010

Sam - 2 months old today!


He's two months old, 24" long, 13lbs and he's grown out of his Moses basket. When I bought it the description said up to 15.75lbs so I thought we'd keep him in here for up to 4 months, I didn't realize he'd grow 3 inches in ONE MONTH!

Working Mom Wednesday

Linking to Work, Wife,Mom...Life! for Working Mommy Wednesday. For this week the discussion is: Your work/ home/ room/ drive to work/ morning routine in pictures.

Hello ladies, I've come to love WMW! Great women visit my blog and I get so many idea's and inspiration from reading your blogs!! Today I'm sharing a few photos because I'm too haggard from packing for my flight with husband, two kids and a dog to write anything of value but I will be checking in with each of you to see what you have to say!

My photo routine is to demonstrate what I look like when I leave the house and then at the end of the day.

I start off great, make up is done, hair is curly and framing my face nicely, outfit is pressed (sometimes) and I'm generally calm and happy.


End of the day hair is pulled back in a messy clip sort of way, arms bogged down with water, pump equipment in camouflage bag, laptop bag, Sally doll from Nightmare before Christmas for work project and purse.



Have a great Wednesday ladies!!!

Tuesday, September 28, 2010

Random Tuesday Thoughts

Welcome to Random Tuesday, a fun blog hop brought to you by "The Un Mom", head over and check out her super cool graphics.

Random News Item
A parrot in the Colombian city of Barranquilla has been "arrested" for allegedly tipping off members of a local drug cartel during a police raid. ha ha ha, Lorenzo the parrot is now a jail bird.

Did you know?
There are UK ounces and US ounces??? Yeah I was trying to figure out how many ounces are in my 2.2 liter water bottle and found a website link that assumed I was referring to US ounces! The UK ounce is slightly bigger than the US ounce. How in the world did these two countries end up with different amounts??? Now I'm wondering if a Starbucks tall latte in the UK is 12 ounces in UK speak or US speak? The cups are supplied by the the US and Starbucks is a US company so they must be forced to drink a smaller ounce size.

Things I have forgotten in the last 2 days
Sunday
  • forgot to take breast feeding wrap to church
  • forgot bottle of milk for baby so couldn't drop him off at nursery and had to stay in the really noisy, tiny mommy nursing room which was surprisingly filled with mom's who must have wanted to spend more time with their bottle fed children who were crawling and walking. I'm not judging! Just saying it was extra noisy and I'd have preferred to be in the adult section.
  • forgot 15% off coupon for Spanx, went back home to get coupon
  • took dress to try on Spanx but forgot dress in the car, had to walk all the way back to get it
Monday
  • forgot to take breast pump plug to work, had to buy batteries
  • forgot to save report and printed weeks old information confusing everyone
  • forgot to save another report with proper header and then argued with boss when he asked why everything was shipping in the wrong quarter, "no boss the report is correct, oh wait, I forgot to change the header"
I think I really need a vacation! Leaving this Wednesday for the wedding; hope I don't "forget" anything important!

Monday, September 27, 2010

Project Skinny Me

This blog theme is hosted by Miss Candy and I'm so excited to join her group challenge and lose post pregnancy pounds. Here is my status report after week three:

Belly - down to 33.5" (started at 35")
Weight - down to 129lbs (started at 135lbs)
Workouts - did Jillian's Shred level 1 Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday (skipped Saturday and Sunday) along with an hour of yoga Wednesday night.

Workouts are 25 minutes long including warm up and cool down. I do them before kids and husband wake up or else I'd be too distracted to get anything done because Charlotte likes to lift my weights.

I've stayed motivated and regular with the workouts but food continues to be a challenge. These are the categories I'm struggling with:

Salt
I splurged on Doritos, bacon on my hamburger (1021mg), a Chick Fil A chicken burrito (990mg) and Whole Foods Lemon Chicken - don't know the salt but know that prepared foods tend to have a ton of it!

For the most part I avoid excess salt by preparing most of our meals at home.

Sugar
I had a Chocolate Croissant, low fat very berry coffee cake from Starbucks, chocolate chip cookies from McDonalds, 1 piece of pound cake from Walmart, and a Lindor chocolate every night before bed. In summary, something sweet twice a day in a completely useless category.

I have one week before the wedding and I'm going to try and cut all Salt and Sugar for the next week, then I'll make up for it on Saturday at the wedding!!!

Sunday, September 26, 2010

Church Chaos

Before Sam was born, my husband worked on Sunday's so I'd take Charlotte to church by myself. We had it down to a tight routine of leaving by 9:30 so I could get her checked into Sunday school and still have 10 minutes before church started to find a friend and finish make up if needed.

Now I have husband AND a newborn to hustle out the door.

Last night Sam woke up at 3am and 6am to eat. The 6am feeding totally threw me off schedule. I had planned to work out at 6:30 and instead was rocking a baby back to sleep. I still managed to give him a bath and get husband and daughter up, both dressed and breakfast made by 9. While we were eating, Sam, sitting in the bouncer next to us, had the biggest poo of his entire life - it shot right out of his diaper! That really threw me off schedule since I hadn't even showered yet and I have this rule about not leaving the house without a shower. I know I should be more flexible but it's my rule. So I quickly changed his diaper and outfit along with throwing the entire bouncer cover into the wash but had to stop and empty the washer first - SIGH!

Finally got the entire family in the van by 9:50 and off to church. Once there I realized we had forgotten Sam's bottle so couldn't drop him off at the nursery - they kinda freak out when you drop off a newborn without paci and bottles so this means I had to sit in the mommy nursing room where they have rockers, changing table and TV to watch the service. Charlotte went to Sunday school and husband went to the auditorium. I also forgot my nursing wrap so used a blanket instead.

New rule - pack everything for church the night before!

Saturday, September 25, 2010

How my 2 year old intimidated an older kid - AGAIN!!

Saturday morning is my time to take Charlotte out to play. I tell her we are going to go play and she shrieks back "PLAY?" The anticipation is priceless.

We must be in a routine because every Saturday I pull everything together by 10am - meaning both kids fed, diapers changed twice, Sam fed twice since 5am, both kids dressed and off to Chick Fil A we go to get my breakfast burrito before they stop serving at 10:30. Depending on the weather we do drive through or eat in.

Today's a rainy day so we decide to eat in and upon entering I spot 'the 2 girls who don't like Charlotte' eating breakfast - uggg, it's too late to turn back, my daughter was excited even before we parked as she now recognizes the building.

Charlotte bolts for the play room and has it all to herself for 2 minutes until the other girls come in and then it was the same as the last 3 times they had all encountered each other. Charlotte screams her welcoming banshee cry of BAJAIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII, they turn and run out the door to tell their mom that a girl is screaming at them. They come back and I get distracted as Sam cries and while attending to him their mother goes into the playroom and quickly comes out with both girls, stops to tell me in a very abrupt short tone that my daughter pushed her daughter. I apologize and go into the room with Sam to monitor my child, leaving breakfast behind.

The other girls finish breakfast and come in with their dad. I apologize to him and he's friendly, says don't worry about it that his youngest girl is very shy, timid and easily upset. We talk about the girls ages, his are 3 and 5, mine is 2 and he tells me about some classes in the area that his kids have enjoyed. Somehow, with both of us in there, the kids suddenly become friends, share toys and play nicely. The girls realize Charlotte was just screaming in friendly anticipation of play and they all scream together. Fun is had by all until the other girls get hurt going down the slide and the younger throws a tantrum. She starts to improve until her mom comes into the room and then she gets worse. Charlotte sits on the slide mournfully watching her new friend howl for her mother who fawns over her.

Finally the girl starts to play again but reverts back to cringing every time Charlotte gets excited, running from her and generally freaking out. I don't see Charlotte touch her or challenge her in anyway but since the girl keeps freaking out I finally just grab Charlotte and leave.

I realize that Charlotte needs to learn how to play with other kids but I think I need practice too! This mediation thing with other peoples fragile kids is hard!!! I never would have dreamed my tiny 2 year old would intimidate an older much bigger child.

Thursday, September 23, 2010

Sam - eight weeks old

This past week has brought a bunch of smiles! He is a happy baby, well fed, warm, cuddly and BIG. He wears the same diapers as his 2 year old sister because they have the same belly size. He wears 3-6 month clothes.

We are just about to the point where he sleeps all night, currently about 6-7 hours.

He's starting to accept his dad and finally accepting bottles! He's breast feed for all meals except for the 2 while I'm at work so he's had a pretty hard time with those 2 bottles.

Next week will be his first plane ride to my home of Hagerstown, MD. We are going to my cousins wedding. I can't wait to show my mom how big he's gotten!

Wednesday, September 22, 2010

Working Mom Wednesday


Linking to Work, Wife,Mom...Life! for Working Mommy Wednesday. For this week the discussion is:
You know you're a working mom when....

You are militant about breast feeding and support commitment by:

- toting breast pump equipment to work every day to pump twice a day. You ignore co-workers jokes and have zero shame.

- traveling with breast pump equipment to client meetings to pump in private room conference rooms (after my daughter was born another mom came to the rescue and offered to reserve a room for me to pump in)

- during travels you pump in turnpike restrooms and in restaurant bathrooms, once even in a fancy restaurant in West Hollywood, CA where a co-worker took you to dinner

In the office it's not like breast pumping is a private matter, your 5 co-workers know why you are disappearing for 15-25 minutes. Then you have to walk out with a little baggy of pumped milk and put it in the freezer. You walk out during lunch hour when everyone's in the kitchen, you hide it in another bag but you still have to put it in the freezer. Then you walk casually to the bathroom to wash equipment and tuck it under the sink.

As a working mom, breast pumping is one of the greatest contributions I can make to my sons development and I love doing it. However the benefits are also great for myself, how else can one disappear for a private break to catch up on social medial (personal emails, facebook, twitter) along with news and other blogs? It's awesome.

Then when I come home, it's a great bonding experience with my baby.

Tuesday, September 21, 2010

Random Tuesday Thoughts

Welcome to Random Tuesday, a fun blog hop brought to you by "The Un Mom", head over and check out her super cool graphics.

Random Charlotte Story
  • Every Saturday we go to Target and for the past two weeks when we enter the first door she immediately lays down between the two doors. I'm always holding Sam in the Bijorn Carrier and this week as she lays down Sam throws up down the middle of my shirt. While I'm busy cleaning him and ignoring her shenanigans an old lady hobbles in behind us and says "little girl what are you doing on the floor, you are going to get yourself hurt down there".
Strangest Etsy Find of the week
  • Butt covers for dogs and cats. What is that? You read it correctly, now check out the link to see this hand made solution. Apparently it's a sticker for your dog's butt to make it look pretty.
Talk Like a Pirate Day
  • Was celebrated in my home town of Williamsport, Maryland! It even made the local papers and story can be found here. More specifically I was born in Hagerstown, MD but Williamsport is right next door so close enough.
  • You can find some great comics on this fun day on Dave Lowe's blog site here.
  • Photos of our glorious attempt at pirate wear can be found here.
Random Cat photo of the week - meet Rumble, our youngest of 3

Have a great Random Tuesday everyone!!

Monday, September 20, 2010

Project Skinny Me

This blog theme is hosted by Miss Candy and I'm so excited to join her group challenge and lose post pregnancy pounds. Here is my status report after week two:

I struggled with fitting a workout into this past week. Monday & Tuesday started out great with Jillian's shred DVD and Wednesday night I had a great yoga session. Thursday I opted to do an hour of chores in the morning that were threatening to drive me over the edge by way of no clean dishes or laundry! Friday and Saturday I never get to work out from balancing kid and work needs and Sunday is my day off. So sadly less than half the week was a workout.

Eating wise I've done okay but I should probably work a little harder to cut back on the sweets and pastas. Mrs. Fields cookies & Starbucks pumpkin cream cheese muffins are enough to throw anyone off the bandwagon!

I haven't lost any weight, I might have even gained a 1/2 inch in the belly but I'm not willing to call this week a failure because I started off well. Now I just need to regain motivation for week three.

My diet tip of the week:
Avoid Salt! It causes enormous bloat and contributes to belly size - which we all want to reduce right? I found that salt can be found in the craziest places. Take for instant, my favorite meal at Chick Fil A. They have this awesome nutritional calculator that breaks down everything:
  • Spicy Chicken Sandwich 1730mg of Sodium, 490 Calories
  • Medium Fries 190mg of Sodium, 380 Calories
  • Small Cookies and Cream milkshake 430mg of Sodium, 570 Calories
Total Calories 1440
Total Sodium 2350

I've wisely stopped getting the fries and milkshake but I was astonished/shocked/amazed to see the sodium is 1730mg in the sandwich!!!

The daily recommended level of sodium is 1500 milligrams per day! See I can justify eating a 490 calorie sandwich in a diet that allows 1600 calories per day but I can't justify that kind of salt intake - especially when I'm feeding my son! Even more surprising is the fries have such a low percentage of salt that I might as well get them instead of the sandwich!!

Sunday, September 19, 2010

Talk Like A Pirate Day

Arrr matie! We had another great Talk Like A Pirate Day! Charlotte had fun charging the camera with her newly acquired plastic sword and Sam refused to wear his eye patch, I think he was a little scared to lose half his vision. Maybe next year he will join in the fun but from the photo below he seems a little alarmed as to what kind of family he's been born into.



We gave notice of the date to our favorite triplets over at Grit's blog and got word they had a fantastic pirate day as well in Hong Kong!

Last year we celebrated while Charlotte had the worst cold of her life and she gave such an angry scowl to the camera!

Wednesday, September 15, 2010

Seeking Balance

My son turns 7 weeks old tomorrow; these are the days when progress is measured by weeks. We know from experience there will come a day when we find balance and there will be enough time for both children but until then life is upside down.

I came home tonight at 8pm, relaxed from yoga class, with an armful of groceries & dinner from Whole Foods to find husband exhausted from the day of caring for newborn and increasingly unhappy daughter about the distribution of attention.

He fell into bed and immediately went to sleep. I did the following (this is purely to remind myself of the insanity if we ever get around to talking about #3):

8:00 - 8:30 - I can't remember much, but part of it involved fixing a barrette in daughter's hair and making her scream. I also fed her some mac n' cheese from Whole Foods before husband ferried her off to bed
8:30 - eat dinner
9:00 - 9:15 - breast pump because son had already eaten and fallen asleep
9:15 - 10:30 - chores
  • take dog out for bathroom break
  • notice plants are dry, rearrange them so the ones leaning very far into the sun are rotated so they might possibly grow straighter, bamboo plant fell over - straighten it and add two long sticks with twisty ties so it stays upright
  • water all plants on the porch
  • feed dog
  • change dogs water
  • feed cats
  • change cats water
  • change bedding in spare bedroom (which is really our living room) where husband sleeps most nights to keep baby from waking me up
  • attempt to clean crayon marks that have been creatively drawn all over dark brown coffee table. Any cleaner suggestions?
  • refill water in kitchen pitcher
  • gather all trash and put in one place for husband to take out
  • pick up all toys from floor
  • sweep floors
  • unpack produce
  • put Charlotte back in bed (she always gets out and once she falls asleep on the floor, we put her back in bed for the night)
And now I have a few work emails to write and I'm going to bed by 11.

Working Mom Wednesday

Linking to Work, Wife,Mom...Life! for Working Mommy Wednesday. For this week the prompt is: Working life BEFORE kids vs. Working life AFTER kids

BEFORE KIDS
It's been 3+ years, because I count pregnancy so let's say most of 2007 was my last free year. I remember starting the day with a one hour workout, 3 miles of walking and a 1/2 hour swim followed by a large 16 oz mug of coffee and I'd buy the good stuff from Buck's County Coffee, mail order - usually paired with a large muffin because I wasn't too worried about weight gain after that workout. I'd lounge in front of the internet till 8am and then rush to get ready for work.

I traveled to Asia 3 times that year along with multiple other client trips.

I'd spend my weekends going to the beach or reading magazines for hours at Barnes and Noble. Cleaning the house was part of the weekend rhythm and usually husband and I would go out for the evening to one of our favorite restaurants.

I worked late hours, 12+ without much concern for time. I wasn't in a hurry to go anywhere but maybe home in time to watch certain TV shoes, probably 24 and The Office.

I collected cooking magazines and practiced gourmet meals every week. I'd go to great lengths to collect ingredients for complicated recipes.

But in summary, my life was boring. You can read about it in the 20 posts I wrote that year - clearly I didn't have much to say. In hindsight, I wish I had at least documented the simple things like a one line post reading "note to future mommy, went to the beach AGAIN and read for hours, ha!".
AFTER KIDS
Now I have two kids, son 6 weeks old, daughter 2 years 2mo old. I try my hardest to wake up before everyone so I can fit in a half hour workout and 10 minutes of quiet prayer time. As soon as my workout is finished, or sometimes before it starts, I feed Sam then pass him off to my husband. I rush to take a shower with daughter clamoring behind me to be held or request for gummies and Toy Story. Post shower I make a breakfast that daughter is most likely to eat with me, scrambled eggs and yogurt, and sit to eat with her.

I try my hardest to keep work hours limited to 8 so I can get home to help husband with the last two hours before Charlotte's bedtime.

Once she's in bed one of us holds Sam while the other one runs around the house cleaning dishes, bills, doing laundry, taking out trash, picking up toys, etc.

Weekends are spent entertaining the kids.

Reading & TV is done after the kids are in bed.

Having kids is exhausting and days like to today make my head spin, I couldn't even think clearly with Charlotte screaming and pulling at me, demanding her shoes to be taken off or put back on - terrible two's are in full swing. But even with the chaos I have a far more interesting and fulfilling life than ever before and I enjoy it but I'm so glad I waited 8 years of marriage to have kids.

Husband and I enjoyed 8 full years of quiet time and yearly vacations that we no longer take. I'm glad we waited until we were so bored of all the quiet time that we now really enjoy these noisy times.

Tuesday, September 14, 2010

Charlotte’s Shoe Obsession





Random Tuesday Thoughts

Welcome to Random Tuesday, a fun blog hop brought to you by "The Un Mom", head over and check out her super cool graphics.

BEST NEWS CLIP
"Park officials in China have found a way to stop people from hogging their benches for too long — by fitting steel spikes on a coin-operated timer.

If visitors at the Yantai Park in Shangdong Province in Eastern China linger too long without feeding the meter, dozens of sharp spikes shoot through the seat."

CAT PHOTO OF THE WEEK
Introducing Rumble, sitting on cake holder, which was deposited on floor by toddler who chased the dog with the lid. Wish I had some chocolate cake...


#1 FOOD CRAVING - SUSHI
I haven't had good Sushi in a long long time! Being recently pregnant will do that to you. I came across this photo of Japanese Sushi Erasers - makes me hungry!
TODDLER HIGHLIGHTS
Shoes - she's become obsessed with our shoes and her shoes. She's tried out all my heels and husband boots this week. It's driving me slightly crazy since she's constantly grabbing at my feet to remove sandals while I'm washing dishes.

BABY HIGHLIGHT - 6 weeks old


Hope y'all have a great random Tuesday!

Monday, September 13, 2010

Project Skinny Me

This blog theme is hosted by Miss Candy and I'm so excited to join her group challenge and lose post pregnancy pounds. Here is my status report after week one:

Monday & Tuesday I worked out with Jillian Michael's Shread DVD. By Wednesday I was so sore I switched to a half hour walk around our lake and that evening did a one hour yoga session. By Thursday I was still on the half hour walk because I felt too worn out to handle the Shread DVD.

Friday, Saturday & Sunday - no workout, just carrying kids all weekend and walking the mall.

Eating - started out good but by Sunday with the lack of working out I was back to every bad habit in the book! So - I'm pretty glad to see Monday and start the week over.

Only two weeks left to go! The good news is that I've lost one inch around the belly so that's something to be proud of! I'd really rather lose the belly then pounds anyway.

Favorite diet tips of week:
* 8oz Plain Yogurt with one packet of splenda and a sprinkle of cinnamon. Add a half cup of berries (raspberry, blackberry or strawberries) and you have less sugar and calories than a manufactured fruit yogurt and it taste better fresh!

* Drink sparkling water with lunch and dinner, it helps you to feel full faster and then you eat less food.

* Eggs for breakfast - they may take a little more time to prepare than cereal but they are worth their weight in gold for how long they keep you full. I can hold out till 1pm after eating eggs in the morning and they are a great protein with low calories.

Wednesday, September 08, 2010

Working Mom Wednesday

Linking to Work, Wife,Mom...Life! for Working Mommy Wednesday. For this week the prompts are:
  • What do you consider necessary to get through the day? (items, routines, coffee, etc.)
  • What do you do on your commute to work - listen to the radio, enjoy peace and quiet, etc.
Necessities:
Shower first, I cannot function without a shower. Breakfast second and I'm talking a full meal - eggs, Canadian bacon, juice, tea or coffee, fruit on top of plain yogurt and toast.

During the day I require 10am snack, lots of water, I almost always pack a lunch to save money and preferably coffee and chocolate at 3pm. I have a wonderful intern who makes latte's almost every day, he's a saint!

Commute to work:
It's 15 minutes and I listen to NPR.

Sorry this was so short! It's actually late Tuesday night, almost midnight and I'm SKYPE'ing to boss who is visiting China and co-workers in Vietnam while writing this. A little bleary eyed. Looking forward to reading everyone's WMW blogs on Wednesday because you are all so descriptive and interesting!!!

Tuesday, September 07, 2010

Random Tuesday Thoughts

Welcome to Random Tuesday, a fun blog hop brought to you by "The Un Mom", head over and check out her super cool graphics.

Random thoughts of the week:

I hate Snuggies; I hate their advertisements and I hate the ugly shapeless blanket and shameful marketing - but most of all - I hate their latest commercials using the most dreadful song every created - The Macarena. Two things I hate most have joined forces to annoy me.

------------
Charlotte got constipated - really bad recently. I went to the pharmacy to look for some kind of fiber to give her and found some miracle fiber gummy bears! Charlotte loves gummy's. While discussing this with the pharmacist, he instructed me to make sure she drinks more liquid. I agreed saying, "yes but she's just turned 2 and is refusing to drink unless it's her idea". He said, "well you just have to tell her that's why she's constipated and if she drinks more it won't happen". I replied, "she's just turned 2, she does not understand that X causes Y to happen".

------------
Well we finally got to church on Sunday as a family - after two months of watching on the internet. The motivating factor was that Charlotte needs to socialize with other kids following the Chick Fil A debacle. We had everyone ready to go, walking out the door when Sam threw up right down the middle of my blouse. I quickly changed to a purple blouse forgetting about the gold sandals still on my feet - I guess I look like royalty right? Then he threw up again but I was able to shift in time so it all ended up on the tile floor. See - many good reasons for tile!

Monday, September 06, 2010

Project Skinny Me

This blog theme is hosted by Miss Candy and I'm so excited to join her group challenge and lose post pregnancy pounds. Our prompt for day one is self introduction and list of health goals.

My name is Rachel and I life in South Florida with husband, 26 month old daughter Charlotte, 1 month old Sam, 3 cats and one dog. I work full time for a toy company where I design and develop plush toys of popular licensed characters - mainly Disney & Pixar. I go to a really cool church called Calvary Chapel Fort Lauderdale. I'd love to volunteer for Kids in Distress or His Caring Place but for now I'm focused on my little family.

I'll be honest, my immediate motivation is to look good in a dress for my cousin's wedding in 4 weeks. There will be professional cameras and in hindsight, I don't think I've had dressy photos taken in a long time!

I bought a gorgeous purple dress from Nordstrom's back in 2006 for a fancy Miami wedding of a co-worker. Since then I've had two kids and am definitely not the same size! Actually I'm only 7lbs over that size but in dress sizes it makes all the difference in fit or not fit.

I realize there are folks out there who may think 7lbs is too little to be troubled with, but let me explain - I'm 5' 4", 132lbs and if it were evenly proportioned I'd probably be okay with being a size 10 but the problem is the weight is centered in my belly - so with small boobs and a round belly I still look 4 months pregnant! I tend to hide this with big shirts that cover it up and it's actually getting harder to find billowing shirts since petite clothing designers tend to favor body hugging styles. So while I want to look good in that dress, I also want to comfortably buy clothes without agonizing over my tummy and looking pregnant.

I'm breast feeding so can't go on a strict diet or milk supply will decrease. My pre-pregnancy diet was 1200 calories and I've added 400 for Sam so I'm working on maintaining 1600 calories per day in all food groups.

I need to emphasize ALL food groups while breast feeding. Many diets recommend removal of fruit, carbs and breads during the weight loss time but I can't do that so I need to find other areas to cut back.

Realistically here is what I can do:
  • Cut out bad stuff that doesn't benefit me or Sam like junk food - chips, fries, ice cream, sugar, donuts, chocolate croissants, sausage, pastries, etc.
  • Continue to drink 64+ fluid ounces of water per day
  • Cut out as much salt as possible to reduce bloating
My first test was grocery shopping on Labor day weekend and I passed on getting the Buy 1 Get 1 Free Lay's Bar B Que potato chips - my favorite! I told husband to keep reminding me of the dress.

Today I'm dying to go to Cracker Barrel where a wonderful display of yummy foods await to tempt me away from my goals so instead I'm writing this post first, then starting Jillian Michael's Shread work-out, then eating eggs for energy and going to the beach with a banana for snack!

Good luck girls and I look forward to getting to know everyone who participates!

Saturday, September 04, 2010

Charlotte's Law

For every good and perfect day there will be an equal and opposite day of frustration and irrational behavior.

Today we are experiencing the latter.

Maybe it's because I waited just a little too long before opening her door to change morning diaper and prepare warm milk? Maybe it's because Sam chose that very moment to require a meal and diaper change thus cutting into her morning mommy time?

Regardless I tried to make up for it by taking her to Chick Fil A to play. Today was our first outing to a play ground with Sam (minus husband who is at work). It was not a great outing.

I was dismayed to see the two annoying girls in matching pink Princess outfits that we saw before Sam was born. For some reason they don't like my daughter and she in turn thinks everyone is a friend. To start Charlotte put up two hands to give the youngest girl a hug who backed away in horror, tripped and almost fell into Sam's car seat which was sitting on the floor, then looked at me and said, "she pushed me". I was like, no she didn't.

I know Charlotte's too young to understand their evasive techniques so she resorted to shouting her favorite made up word BAHJAAAAAAH as they ran in and out, in and out of the play room. The youngest (around 4) would mask horror every time Charlotte yelled and run to her mom saying that girl yelled at me! Meanwhile I had gotten caught up feeding Sam and was left to parent from the side lines.

I know she won't be friends with everyone she meets but it gives me a pit in my stomach to see unfriendly kids. It's a joy to watch her play with friendly kids. I keep saying to myself, that's one of the reasons we had a second child, to give her a playmate. I'm the middle daughter with two brothers and we didn't have any neighbors to play with until we reached 12 or 13 so they were my best friends and enemies some days but we always had each other for every playground or adult event our parents took us to.

I'm so glad I had my brothers to play with, other kids are tough to mingle with even at the age of 2!

Friday, September 03, 2010

Blissful Mommy Time

This afternoon, as I was juggling holding Sam and cuddling with Charlotte next to me, she in a good mood from finishing warm milk, Sam a little fussy but happy I was holding him - it finally occurred to me that I was having a blissful mommy moment with both my children. I was happy, content and everything was good.

It's been a chaotic morning -

* We ambitiously tried cloth diapers, to you veterans out there you might not remember the trial and error days! We started with the pre-fold diapers covered with a Kushie cover. Sam enjoyed an hour in his swing and with chirps and grunts let me know it was time to pick him up. His outfit was randomly covered in poo, but nothing got on the swing! I rushed him to the bathroom where husband helped me give him a bath. Then this sweet baby lay quietly while we scrubbed him clean. Charlotte pulled out her bag of tub toys and handed us one by one to give to Sam - her sweet thoughtful moments with him are still so random and unexpected.

* I tried working from home today and with the constant interruptions of feeding Sam, laughing as Charlotte took her shoes on and off to walk around in mine, changing Sam's clothes at least 3 times until we got the diaper on correctly - I'm afraid I'll be working over the weekend to get caught up!

It's been 5 weeks since Sam got here, 2 weeks since grandmothers left and we've been struggling to get a grip! Today I found a nice little rhythm, it may not last but it was nice for a bit.

Wednesday, September 01, 2010

Working Mom Wednesday

Linking to Work, Wife,Mom...Life! for Working Mommy Wednesday. For this week I'm creating my own prompt and it's all about how I fit exercise into my work schedule.

Today is September 1st and my first day of working out postpartum 5 weeks. I went to the doctor's yesterday and got my clearance papers to go back to a normal life. She advised that I take it easy at first but that's not really my style and don't even think about talking me out of this because I will just ignore you.

I have 7lbs to lose to regain my post baby figure and I'm planning to do a half hour of exercise Monday through Thursday; that's half of what I do normally and I'm doing half so I can continue breast feeding without any impact to milk production. If I do see an impact then I will scale back to a less aggressive form of exercise like yoga.

Exercise is an important part of my life for these reasons:
  • it gives me energy to get through a very hectic work and home schedule
  • it makes me feel good about myself
  • makes me strong enough to hold a 23lb daughter and 11lb boy (at the same time occasionally)
  • I have trouble with circulation in my legs which causes pain and any form of leg exercise helps (walking, running, biking, aerobics)
I woke this morning planning to work out but hadn't managed to secure workout clothes or find video the night before so it took almost 30 minutes to find everything. I highly recommend pulling out all workout gear the night before.

We live in a condo complex that surrounds a pond and it's 1/3 mile walking distance circumference. I started today walking one lap while lifting 2 five pound weights, 70 arm curl reps, 50 reps lifting the weights straight up post arm curl.

I then did two laps holding Sam in the Baby Bjorn carrier. He was awake and husband joined me for one lap with Charlotte so we made it a family walk.

So first day of working out = one mile with weights and 11 pound baby strapped to my chest. Not a very aggressive workout but it's a start!

Thanks to husband I had the following for breakfast (he totally rocks!!!)
  • 2 scrambled eggs with cheese and red pepper flakes
  • 1 slice of wheat toast (partially shared with Charlotte)
  • 8oz orange juice
  • 8oz plain yogurt with splenda, cinnamon and handful of fresh raspberries (yum!)
  • Cafe Du Monde coffee
Finally I have to give partial credit to Miss Candy for her Project Skinny Me that I've been watching for several weeks now. She's going an awesome job of losing weight and has given me loads of inspiration!!!